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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,423 records · Page 79
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

The Transforming Mobility Ecosystem: Enabling in Energy-Efficient Future

Over the next decade, the transportation sector is poised for rapid change, propelled toward a new mobility future by strong technology currents and the confluence of prevailing megatrends. These major forces hold the promise of shaping a new mobility future – one that unlocks tremendous economic value, provides unprecedented gains in safety, offers affordable and equal accessibility, and enables the transition to energy-efficient transport of people and goods. They come, however, with cautionary viewpoints on energy consumption of the entire sector, necessitating the need to carefully guide the emergent future. This report examines four possible mobility futures that could exist in 2050 and the positive and negative impacts of these futures on energy consumption and the broader economy.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Final Technical Report: SC0010625, "Multi-scale Carbon Cycle Observations and Ecosystem Process Modeling at Niwot Ridge, Colorado"

final technical report for DE-SC0010625. This project was focused on land-atmosphere CO 2 and CO 2 isotope exchange at Niwot Ridge, Colorado, including the Niwot Ridge AmeriFlux Core site (subalpine forest site) and an adjacent long-term alpine tundra study location (tundra site). The project had three primary objectives, including 1) testing several hypotheses about land-atmosphere carbon exchange, 2) using our ongoing datasets to constrain, test, and further develop carbon cycle processes within CESM-CLM, and 3) continuation of measurements of CO 2 and CO 2 isotope composition. The project is now complete and all funds have been expended. There was a no-cost extension period (2 years) in which we wrapped up analyses and published the results. This grant was the last in a series of grants that funded measurement of the carbon isotope composition of atmospheric CO 2 at the Niwot Ridge AmeriFlux Core site (period of record 11 years, and measurements have ended). Those data have been publicly available since May 2017 via the AmeriFlux archive at: DOI: 10.17190/AMF/1246088 ftp://ftp.fluxdata.org/.ameriflux_downloads/.amf/US-NR1.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Changes in Soil Carbon Dynamics in Response to Long-Term Soil Warming - Integration Across Scales from Cells to Ecosystems

This project produced a series of papers documenting the effects of soil warming on fluxes of carbon dioxide between soils and the atmosphere, and the temporal changes in structure and function of soil microbial community. A diversity of techniques was used in the study including: pyrolysis–GC/MS to analyze soil chemistry; isotopically–labeled organic compounds to estimate microbial carbon use efficiency; and Illumina sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene to study bacterial community composition. We found that soil warming resulted in a four–phase pattern of soil organic matter decay and carbon dioxide fluxes to the atmosphere, with phases of substantial soil carbon loss alternating with phases of no detectable loss. Several factors combined to affect the timing, magnitude, and thermal acclimation of soil carbon loss. These include depletion of microbially accessible carbon pools, reductions in microbial biomass, a shift in microbial carbon use efficiency, and changes in microbial community composition. Our results support projections of a long–term, self–reinforcing carbon feedback from mid–latitude forests to the climate system as the world warms.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2019

Building an open source software ecosystem for cross-disciplinary plasma research and education

Software is crucial to all areas of modern plasma science research. Laboratory plasma physicists use software to interpret plasma diagnostics, analyze experimental results, and glean insights using advanced techniques from data science. Space scientists use software to reduce and understand in situ observations. Numericists use software to simulate the behavior of laboratory, heliospheric, and astrophysical plasmas, and then analyze or visualize the results. Theorists use symbolic manipulation software to perform or check derivations. Cross-disciplinary research and cross-comparisons between experiments, observations, simulations, and theories all require software. Despite our heavy reliance on software, funding agencies have traditionally had few avenues available to support development of general purpose research software infrastructure.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Background and Roadmap for a Distributed Computing and Data Ecosystem

The drivers for using distributed computing and data resources are emerging from many science domains and have been documented through several recent Department of Energy (DOE) workshop reports. The increased usage and availability of geographically distributed computing and storage resources also highlight the need for easy-to-use tools and procedures that can support the paradigm of distributed computing and data management transparently. Aiming to meet each laboratory’s programmatic needs, a variety of computing resources are available throughout the DOE complex under various access policies, operating systems, and hardware configurations. However, today no straightforward mechanisms or policies exist for a given researcher or group of researchers to easily access resources at different locations across the DOE laboratory system. At the same time, DOE research programs have supported the research and development of technologies and tools that could enable researchers to access distributed data and computing resources globally. Academic and industry activities have also developed mechanisms for the distributed federation of resources. We observe that such existing capabilities can be harnessed to create mechanisms that enable researchers to work seamlessly across facilities.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Genomes to ecosystem function: Targeting critical knowledge gaps in methanogenesis and translation to updated global biogeochemical models (Wrighton Ohio State Report -- Early Career Department of Energy)

In 2018 our key deliverable was a temporally and spatially resolved investigation of the microbial community across wetland soils. As part of this experimental design we sampled 3 land coverage types at a total of 10 sites: Mud (Mud-1, Mud-2, Mud-3), Plant (Nelumbo-1, Nelumbo-2, Nelumbo-3, Typha-1), Open water (Open Water-1, Open Water-2, Open Water-3). Within each site we collected 3-5 soil cores, sub-sampled at the surface (0-5 cm), middle (10- 15 cm), and deep (25-30 cm) depths. Additionally in August, during peak methane emission, we conducted a higher-resolved depth sampling at 5 cm intervals: 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20, 20-25 and 25-30 cm depths. In total, from a single field season, we collected over 950 samples for paired microbial, geochemical, and metabolite data. Additionally, all measurements were paired to in situ soil greenhouse gas measurements, and emission chamber measurements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Mechanistic and predictive understanding of needle litter decay in semi-arid mountain ecosystems experiencing unprecedented vegetation mortality. Final report

This research compared needle litter decay rates and underlying mechanisms between litter released from insect-killed trees to that of naturally senesced litter from healthy trees across climate variables with elevation and snowmelt rates as variables. Our research was designed to address questions of whether there is a significant impact to C and N cycling at the terrestrial-atmospheric interface in association with pine needle decomposition and the role of changes in soil moisture and temperature as a function of these processes. Field activities were primarily conducted within the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory’s (RMBL) East River watershed across a spectrum of ecoregions that spanned approximately 700 vertical meters. Forested catchments at these elevations in southwestern Colorado are threatened by heat-induced drought, altered snowmelt patterns, and invasive insect infestation that have all been associated with climate change. Needle litter from two members of the Pinaceae family experiencing large-scale insect infestations (spruce and lodgepole pine) were collected, redeployed and then sampled over the course of three years. We experimentally tested three tractable parameters that are known to impact litter decay and biogeochemical cycling and are relevant to bark beetle-induced tree mortality: (1) moisture content, (2) temperature by using elevation as a surrogate, and (3) changes to litter compositional chemistry that result from beetle infestation. We examined decay processes and monitored the migration of soluble and gaseous nitrogen and carbon species as well as microbiological signatures of decay such as biodegradable fractions, metal availability and the temporal succession of associated microorganisms at the terrestrial interface.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Carbon–Nutrient Economy of the Rhizosphere: Improving Biogeochemical Prediction and Scaling Feedbacks from Ecosystem to Regional Scales

Our project has advanced the science of plant-soil-microbial dynamics across these areas: i) nutrient cycling and plant uptake; ii) root exudation and priming; and, iii) mycorrhizal dynamics. Our project has accomplished 5 main developments: 1) Incorporation of phosphorus cycling into the Fixation & Uptake of Nutrients (FUN 3.0) model. 2) Coupling of FUN 3.0 into the E3SM Land Model (ELM). 3) Data collection across a large mycorrhizal gradient in the US, as well data in the tropics, to parameterize, test, and validate the model. 4)Scaling up mycorrhizal association measurements across landscapes using airborne hyperspectral remote sensing data. 5) Evaluation of global carbon and nutrient cycle impacts in the Community Land Model (CLM5.0) from a suite of new global mycorrhizal association maps. Over 25 publications resulted from this project, with more continuing past the project funded lifetime. Paper highlights from most of these publications have already been submitted to the DOE paper submission online system. These publications include journals such as Science and PNAS, as well as top disciplinary journals from the Nature journals, Global Change Biology, New Phytologist, and Ecology Letters, for example. Our project also contributed to improving the process representation, capabilities, and accuracy of the DOE ELM. Overall, this project significantly advanced the science of belowground plant-soil-microbial interactions as well as technical capabilities from remote sensing to modeling.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Multiscale Land-Atmosphere Interaction in Tropical Ecosystems

A leading source of uncertainty in the magnitude of future climate change arises from feedback between the physical climate system and the carbon cycle. Output from 15 Earth System Models (ESMs) in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) shows that when forced by identical emissions, predicted atmospheric CO 2 concentrations in 2100 ranged from 780 ppm to 1120 ppm due to variations in carbon cycle feedback among the models. The resulting difference in radiative forcing of climate is almost 2 W m -2 , comparable to the total uncertainty in the physical climate system for the representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5 scenario in 2100. Scaling future carbon sources and sinks to match contemporary atmospheric CO 2 reduced this uncertainty by a factor of five, suggesting that contemporary observations might dramatically constrain future predictions, but their scaling had no mechanistic basis, so it provides little insight on carbon cycle processes.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ecosystems and Networks Integrated with Genes and Molecular Assemblies (ENIGMA): Component 5: Imaging Protein Conformations, Shapes & Assemblies in Solution & Administration project (Final Scientific/Technical Report, Subcontract No. 6974584)

We set ambitious goals to examine microorganism communities and measure both their chemical input and output as a read out of specific biochemical activity. These scientific goals are driving the development of sophisticated algorithms to analyze large amounts of experimental measurements made using high throughput technologies to explain and predict how the environment influences biological function at multiple scales and how the microbial systems in tum modify the environment. By examining how bacteria communities rely on symbiotic metabolic relationships for survival and reproductive success, and how these relationships consequently affect their biochemical capabilities. This was accomplished using state-of-the-art mass spectrometry-based methods, and metabolic fingerprinting approaches with a high degree of chemical specificity and sensitivity. During this period the original effort transitioned and was consolidated into what is now ENIGMA, the efforts on technology development expanded to include more untargeted metabolomics and its application to organisms on a systems level.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ecosystems and Networks Integrated with Genes and Molecular Assemblies (ENIGMA) (Final Scientific/Technical Report, Subcontract Award No. 6953691)

The overarching objective the Baliga lab is to develop a mechanistic understanding of the field relevant metabolic processes underlying community partitioning of respiration pathways and physiological state shifts. In order to dissect how environmental perturbations influence microbial regulatory networks, we have constructed data-driven models that capture the dynamic interplay between abiotic and biotic factors during laboratory simulations. Specifically, we have developed multiple computational models (i.e., cMonkey2, EGRIN 2.0, and multiple genome-scale metabolic models) connecting environmental influence to genome-encoded regulatory programs. In addition, we have generated new tools such as Live Anaerobic Cell Sorting (LAnCS) and Fluidized Bed Reactors (FBRs) to investigate the dynamics of community partitioning of metabolic processes supporting sulfate or nitrate respiration, which are two critical activities observed from the field site at Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL). This framework of connecting field phenomena with laboratory simulations and computational modeling has created the Environmental Simulations and Modelling (EnvSim) campaign within ENIGMA. The campaign, which spans multiple laboratories across ENIGMA and is led by the Baliga group, has established synthetic communities (SynComs) to discover, characterize, and dissect key microbial processes relevant to field observations, such as emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N 2 O). For example, the EnvSim campaign so far has deduced four potential mechanisms that may account for the N 2 O emissions at the FRC and are currently being investigated by labs across ENIGMA. Denitrification may be driven by complete denitrifiers, however, their NosZ enzymes, which catalyze the final step in denitrification by converting N 2 O to N 2 , may be sensitive at a lower pH. Additionally, the denitrification process could be partitioned among organisms and some may have pH-sensitive NosZ genes. Another factor contributing to variable N 2 O emissions relates to the metal co-factors involved in the denitrification pathway. For instance, excess Cu, Al, Mn, U, Ni, Co, Cu, and/or Cd may have inhibitory effects on multiple enzymatic steps during denitrification, while the enzymatic production of nitrite, the precursor of N 2 O, can be limited by the essential metal Mo. Lastly, abiotic production of N 2 O may occur as a result of chemodenitrification, in which metals like Fe, Mn, and some organic compounds can drive redox reactions that convert nitrogen cycle intermediates to N 2 O under the right conditions. Current investigations and analyses have generated multiple transcriptomic profiles aiding the refinement of new metabolic and gene regulatory network model for our denitrifying SynCom. In sum, the previous funding cycle has generated 33 peer-reviewed publications spanning predictive network biology to co-operativity of mutualistic interspecies interactions of evolved communities. Our integration of multiple omics datasets and the development of new network modelling tools has revealed important insights that can explain field observed phenomenon and generated new hypotheses to be investigated in the field.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Efficient partnership models for energy technology startups enabled by artificial intelligence that hyper-targets ecosystem connectivity

PartnerAI is a platform that utilizes the tools of the rapidly advancing field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand and identify the connections between founders and potential partners or investors in the clean energy space. The platform makes use of data science tools, including clustering and NLP libraries, to evaluate scraped text and data, and build a real-time network of potential connections.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗